Now Commenting On:

Johnson sees better second half for Rays' bats

Johnson sees better second half for Rays' bats

CLEVELAND -- While many of the Rays' hitters are putting up numbers well below what was expected of them this season, Elliot Johnson is not one of them.

Johnson entered Sunday's game against the Indians hitting .277 with four home runs and 22 RBIs, which is a vast improvement over last season when he hit .194.

Ask Johnson about where he's sitting, though, and he'll tell you, "I believe I can do a lot more.

"I feel good at the plate right now," Johnson said. "I feel like I'm seeing the ball right now for a long time. It's hard to describe, really. It's almost like I can slow the ball down. I don't think about anything except for the ball -- and I see it really, really big right now. So hopefully I can keep that going as long as possible."

Though Johnson struggled last season, he has been a productive player in the past. In 2010, he hit .319 with 11 home runs and 56 RBIs for Triple-A Durham. So perhaps his offensive output shouldn't be such a surprise.

Johnson feels he's going to do even better in the second half, and he's optimistic about the team's offense doing the same.

"We have to get better at prolonging at-bats, at seeing more pitches," Johnson said. "Any of the ways you can think of. Sometimes if you make an out, you want to at least make the pitcher work a little bit. We're going to get better. We have guys that can do the job, we know that."

Johnson thinks a reasonable offensive goal for the team would be to score at least five runs a game.

"We're not going to score 10 runs like we did [on Friday] night all the time," Johnson said. "Like I've always thought, five is our magic number. It seems like if we can get five, we've pretty much done our job offensively -- not that we want to stop when we get there. But if we can get to five, that seems like a fair amount. Not to put too much pressure on our pitchers, but really, that's the way our team is built. So, [it] kind of does have to put the pressure on the pitchers."